Developing People-Deploying Dignity

Let The Non Swimmers Drown-The Coalition's Approach to Domestic Violence

2011-10-30T18:52:00.002Z

Introduction

The Guardian has published bad news for that will reduce access to legal aid for targets of Domestic Violence.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/oct/30/female-domestic-violence-victims-lose-out-in-legal-reforms

We offer Awareness Raising programmes to the Public and Private Sectors-feedback from our programmes has been exceptionally positive: we base them on verifiable information that is delivered in a direct "no frills" manner, allowing the power of the information to create the impact.

Participants aren't wilfully ignorant however it remains pretty clear to me that unless you are

A target of domestic violence and abuse
A friend or relative of a target
A support worker or other professional

it is less than likely that you'll have a picture of the reality for the 3 million women per year (UK) whose lives are blighted by an abusive relationship. It doesn't stop with the target: children too are adversely affected with well researched impacts on their educational and emotional growth.

I wonder what questions the decision makers asked themselves: here are some from one of our training packages

(a) How doperpetrators isolate women? How do perpetrators make women feel unable to doanything right through enforced trivial demands thus taking away their confidence in believing that they can make a change for the better

(b) How doperpetrators degrade women, what threats might a perpetrator use? Well, one of the ways is to make the financially invisible and therefore almost completely dependent.

(c) How might aperpetrator display total power by showing who is in control? What small“nice things and treats” might constitute occasional indulgences? Total financial control equals total power. The occasional indulgence? More power and control

(d) How are womenkept physicallyand emotionally exhausted by perpetrators? What distorted perspectivesmight a perpetrator use to justify his behaviour? There are as many as there are perpetrators and targets-what we know is that the collective impact of the behaviour is to take away the individual's capacity to believe that they can break out of the relationship and begin a new life under the protection of the law

And it's my belief that unless you are asking these questions and plenty more you are not going to understand the impact of a decision that restricts access to legal aid and support at a critical time.

They might also want to ask

How might perpetrators usechildren to increase their control and decrease the resistance of the target?How might they use children to:

Humiliate
Force compliance
Ensure silence ismaintained
Force a woman to stay inan abusive relationship

and that often the resolution of such complex issues requires the force of law.

Is it that they do not understand that impoverishment is part of the abuse and that the target may be effectively without any means of support at and beyond the point of leaving?

This is a poorly thought out decision that requires challenging in a very public forum. There is, as far as I can ascertain, no evidence of alternative funding streams. A disgrace.

2011-10-11T02:02:00.000+01:00

Last Month Coady Consultants made significant progress in the way our training is delivered by recording some audio tracks and asking the trainees to respond to them. While this sort of thing is not unknown, it is the first time the company has tried something like this and we really were going out on a limb in order to make it work. Here’s how it all happened:

"Reflective In The Studio"

One of our clients has us involved with a project called Dignity At Work, where if somebody is having a problem at work with, for instance, their colleagues, or procedures that don’t fit their comfortable work patterns, they can call a Dignity At Work advisor who can advise on what to do, which procedures to follow, who to talk too etc. The project has been live for several months now, and though it has been useful when it has been used, the feedback that we received from our training sessions gave the impression that the team were becoming disillusioned with the lack of calls they were receiving. It is difficult, therefore, for development as an advisor to come with experience, so the group meets up every so often, typically 3-4 months, to discuss progress and how to move forward to deliver a better service. In response to this, Coady Consultants took the step of devising a way to deliver some training that would give the team some experience and knowledge of dealing with issues that might arise in their role.

The initial idea was to conduct the training in the form of a ‘role-play’ scenario; however this was not well received. Role play is a challenge which not all the members of the team were willing to accept, and it would be difficult to construe what was happening in the role play as a ‘realistic scenario.’ John Dooner then came up with the idea of doing it as an audio recording, and called me in to a meeting room to brainstorm the idea…

The project started off with John suggesting that I write ‘radio playlet’ scripts for the audio tracks that eventually became the sound project. This was something I was more than happy to take on; creative writing is something I really enjoy doing! Then we brainstormed ideas on how we might get these scripts in to a presentable form for delivering training. The suggestions went from recording it into a mobile phone – not a popular one for presentation – to hiring actors, recording studios, equipment, engineers and doing a massive production job. I must admit at this point I was feeling somewhat incredulous about all this; it sounded like a great idea but it also sounded like one of those things that sounds great when you’re talking about it, but when it comes down to actually doing it the whole thing becomes too mad, breaks down around you and you just get on with the mundane activities that keep your life ticking over. But then again, through my experience as a musician I’ve had experience in dealing with recording studios, I know some actors, or at least some people who could do it, and as I have said, I enjoy writing… there’s no reason why it shouldn’t work. So I took on the project, and threw myself in to what became one of the most challenging and enjoyable experiences of my employment.

The first step was to write the scripts. My brief was to come up with several different ways of how not to answer a call that you might get as a DAW Advisor, and a couple of good ones as well. We had chosen to base the tracks on a true story of a long-running piece of work we were in the process of completing. We changed the names and places, but I was writing about real things and real people with sensitive issues. We were always going to do this; it lends an extra layer of plausibility to the end result. But as with any piece of creative writing, it’s not going to work without some semblance of a plan, and I had to keep in mind that everything that happens in a call – what is said, how it is said, why, how it all ends etc – happens for a reason. I therefore set about coming up with a few scenarios for the complainant, Emily, based on four points during her sorry tale where she might have called a DAW advisor, if she had the opportunity. I did the same thing for scenarios that somebody who works in an office might find themselves in which might be reflected in their mood and how they deal with the call, e.g. the end of a long day, just come out of a disciplinary hearing, in the middle of a meeting, bright and enthusiastic. It was then a case of matching the two separate scenarios together, and writing the scripts around that.

The actual writing was easy after the initial planning stage. The fact that I have met the people on whom this story was based and know quite a bit about them meant that it was not hard to deduce what might be said and how an advisor might respond. One point discussed in the initial meeting that I was eager to get across was the fact that some people may be struggling with quite a complex set of emotions, and would have to make a terrific effort to convince themselves that it is worthwhile making a call. What that person doesn’t want is to be told that the advisor is too busy to talk to them, or that they think their problem is petty and below their attention. This was a matter that came up in discussions with the actors I eventually hired and the team to whom we delivered the training; the issues that Emily was calling with do seem quite petty and spiteful, playground stuff that shouldn’t really have found it’s way in to work. And yes, it was all that and more – but at Coady Consultants we feel that the fact that Emily had to deal with these problems, which also included a troubled personal history, on her own with little or no help from her employers, made a significant contribution to the damage it eventually caused.

Incidentally, one of the scripts was actually written about half an hour before the first and only rehearsal the actors had! This was due to some communication difficulties; my scripts had highlighted most of the pitfalls that DAW advisors might fall in to but not all, and it took a while before I was informed of what I had missed. Bearing in mind that I did not know from the outset exactly what ground to cover, getting 6 out of 7 correct is not bad at all, but I’d left out the idea of over-promising, so when I finally found this out I had to come up with a script for it very quickly. However, this wasn’t a problem; I came up with a generic script for Emily and an enthusiastic response from her DAW advisor and all was sorted out.

The next step was to hire three actors; a significant challenge. I could, had I wanted to, have found some booking agents and hired out professionals to do the job. A number of things stopped me from doing this, not least of which money. While I had been given no specific budget to work to, I knew roughly how much money we were making from the job itself, and I guessed that I wouldn’t be allowed to throw money around indiscriminately. Also, it was the first time I had tried to do something like this and I didn’t want to hire professional actors to do a job that I’m doing at – not an amateur level, but I would prefer if my actors came in with no expectations that I expect to fulfil. So I had to find my actors elsewhere. The plan was to go for Universities and Colleges; I’m all for giving young performers a chance and they wouldn’t necessarily be above working for a comparatively small amount of money.

The first one was easy enough: My old friend Katie Saunders, who I know to have a huge amount of talent anyway, had recently completed a degree in Drama at Aberystwyth University. Knowing the problems that many graduates find in looking for work after their degree, I guessed she would have no problem with taking on the role of Emily. I did inform her about exactly what had happened with Emily and why to enable her to get in to the role – but not before asking for a confidentiality agreement, remember we’re dealing with real people here!

Katie: Ready to record!

Kate actually found the next person: her old friend Guy Oliver, who I understand has also completed a similar degree and was very interested in the role as the DAW Advisor. John also asked me to find someone to play the part of a female DAW Advisor, and for this one I spoke to Andy Nicholls at Dudley College, asking if he had any Performing Arts students who would be interested in the role. A few days later I got a phone call from a young lady called Gabrielle Thomas, and the following week I drafted her in to the project after someone else pulled out of the role.

Guy, the right Guy for the role?

Finding the studio wasn’t difficult, but it was harder work than it should have been. I spent some time looking at websites for various studios to see about how much it would cost and whether it was equipped for purpose. I thanked my lucky stars that I’m working in an era where such information is available online; in the past I would either have had to make many phone calls and visits to find this sort of thing out, or book a studio and hope for the best having no idea what I was getting myself in to when I walk through the door! I narrowed it down to two candidates who fit the requirements, and chose the one closer to the Wolverhampton area where the actors and I live. Unfortunately they didn’t answer their phone once in six days, so I eventually went with Robannas in Birmingham, who were more than happy to have our business!

Robannas Studios-Birmingham: Professional and plenty of parking!

I then got the actors together for a rehearsal. I don’t know whether a rehearsal is usual in this sort of thing, but I got the idea from watching the DVD extras to Family Guy of all things. The voice actors all sit around a table with copies of the script and read out their parts as they come along. It was possible that the actors could have read their parts of the script in the studio without ever meeting one another. However, because of the way I am used to working with musicians, I am used to an environment where everybody contributes, so what you eventually hear is the combination of voices and scripts that we just wouldn’t have got by working individually. If there was sufficient time, money and inclination, I might have tried to arrange matters to take this idea forward. However, for this project, it was absolutely crucial that the actors had an idea of what the conversation with their counterparts was supposed to sound like, and I think we achieved that. In hindsight, I could have arranged it a little better – nobody knew where the office was, including me, so we were a bit late in getting started, I’d forgotten to print a script off for myself and ended up sharing Guys, and I’d had no lunch so I was starving hungry - but it served its purpose and it’s a step that I’m very glad we took.

The recording itself was the following Friday. That actually went quite smoothly. The three actors conducted themselves with great professionalism and gave stunning performances. I had over-booked the actors slightly; I had given them two hours each to record their parts but in practice most of it was done in less than an hour, and Guy managed his scripts in 30 minutes. That meant that there was a lot of downtime in between actors, however the engineer Slawek used this to our advantage by chopping up the separate lines which actually saved us a lot of time later. John turned up at some point to see what was going on; the actors had left by then but he filmed the inside of the studio to show people what we were doing.

The only slight problem we encountered was that we had no ambient background track to use. This was something that simply hadn’t occurred to me while preparing for the project, and I ended up spending a significant amount of time hunting around the net for an appropriate sound recording. It didn’t help that I couldn’t get any sound out of my laptop either; I need a new one! The one we went with – simply called ‘Post Office’ – wasn’t ideal; it was a lot of echoey noise that was not really representative of the environment we were trying to emulate, but Slawek tweaked it a little bit, and put a few sound effects built in to his computer onto the track as well to make a fairly convincing backing track.

The mixing took a long time; Slawek unfortunately hadn’t heard what the scripts were supposed to sound like before we recorded them so we spent a lot of time working together to make sure all the lines were in the right order. It was a long and arduous process but one that was one hundred percent necessary. It turned out that we needed some extra time anyway just to finish it off and master it; I had no problem with this as we had worked very hard in the day and it was worth the extra money to walk away with something we could be certain was the finished product.

I must also give an honorary mention to another friend Sam Draisey, who wrote and performed the introductory music for the CD. It was certainly no worse than most of the tracks available online for the same money, better than many, and quite well written given the fact that my mind went blank every time he asked me what sort of artists he wanted the track to sound like. (For future reference, Massive Attack would be magnificent!)

We were delighted with how the CD turned out in the end; however there are always things you would do differently next time, so here are some developmental points for me for when we do another one:

More time to do the mixing would be my first priority. Whether that means booking the actors for less time, or booking the studio for more time, we need more time to use the material we have. When we recorded the actors we did about four or five takes of each track. The procedure then would be to choose the best bits of each track and use them in the final mix. That wasn’t really possible for a couple of reasons, time being an important one; we ended up using the first take for near enough all of them, and it was only when I happened to remember that they performed one or two lines better in the other takes that those takes got used. This is a shame because I do remember the actors performing generally better on some of the other takes. The knock-on effect of not having that backing track ready to begin with was not catastrophic but it did cost us. Because I spent most of the recording searching the net, I couldn’t be anywhere near as attentive while the actors were recording, so I couldn’t really be methodical in deciding which of the takes to use in the final mix; the first time I really listened to any of them was when we were mixing. There wouldn’t have been much we could have done anyway because of the time constraints, but it’s a step I would like to have taken.

2011-10-11T02:01:00.000+01:00

Premise:

The August riots-a tragedy in their own right-have presented a golden opportunity to an ever-present mob of reactionary voices that all too easily fall into a time-worn, clichéd dialogue containing the following key words and phrases:

Back to basics
Respect
Discipline
Punishment
Do gooders
Trendy Teaching

I’m pretty sure you catch my drift!

Here’s some information gleaned from the Pimlico Academy-a transformed school that did a a few pretty straight forward things.

They decided what they were there for and told everybody in six straight forward sentences.
They set up a great pastoral system-a house system that worked well because it emphasised the importance of learning and behaviour and did something about it when things started to slip
A strong tutorial system and after school support-access to specialist teachers and boosters
A strong sense of corporate identity with a uniform-grants for families who were struggling to afford one.
A Firm, Fair and Followed disciplinary system
A rewards system that acknowledges an celebrates progress in behaviour.

Outcome :

The number of pupils achieving five A*-C grades at GCSE (including maths and English) was 60 per cent in 2010/11, up from 36 per cent in 2007/08.

At the end of the 2010/11 school year, attendance was 94.3 per cent for years 7 to 11, compared to 78.3 per cent in 2009/10.

Staff absenteeism has halved since the introduction of the new measures thanks to reduced stress and pressure on teachers.

In the first year that the rewards system was introduced, there were no permanent exclusions. The following year there was only one.

Prior to the rewards system, 50 to 60 pupils were sent out of lessons each day. Now it is fewer than 10 and they are normally sent out for less serious reasons than was previously the case. Overall there has been a huge change in the atmosphere in the school, maintains Holt: “The staff are happier, the students are happier and the school is basically a much nicer place to be.”

The above takes a little more thinking through the simplistic rantings of “Put the teacher back in charge” and it sits comfortably with my view-if you want respect you need to earn it-power and authority are given and received, not enforced and tolerated and, without consensus we’re nowhere.

This doesn’t mean that we “hand over control to the kids”-it means for me that life is far more subtle and nuanced than ”Do as I say or else,” and the sooner we establish learning cultures that transmit those values, the better it will be for kids, their families and teachers and wider society.

We have, as part of our professional portfolio a considerable depth of experience working in schools and colleges on behaviour related issues. Our experience would bear out the key elements of the above and we are happy to discuss this here or by contacting us directly at enquiries@coadyconsultants.co.uk

Listen To Your Workforce!

2011-10-11T01:57:00.000+01:00

Workforce Voices-The Value and Benefits of Listening

October 5, 2011 by coady1

Premise

Can listening to and engaging with a workforce make a positive contribution-we believe it can as long as it is honest, authentic and can show that a “difference for the better” has emerged. We also believe that this will work in any organisation-large or small-providing the process is well managed.

Here are 3 areas for consideration

Principles
Benefits
Challenges

Principles of Listening to Workforce Voices:

o Mutual respect given and received between and within the workforce
o All adults have equal worth in the workplace
o Communication is open, honest, valued and provides an exchange of ideas and views between workforce
o Investment in the future – accepting that all members of workforce are entitled to express their views about things which will affect and determine their future
o Meaningful active involvement where any decisions about workforce are made with them
o Working relationships are sustainable, effective and responsive
o Equal opportunities exist for workforce to be involved in a range of activities/development processes
o Workforce participation, involvement and voice are continually evaluated and reviewed.

Benefits of Listening to Workforce Voices:

o Gives additional information and insight into what the workforce thinks of structures/management etc
o Helps to strengthen partnerships between workforce and management
o Helps workforce members work out what is best for themselves and their colleagues
o Enables the workforce to gain better understanding of the things that really matter to colleagues
o Helps to create a listening environment
o All workforce members feel valued, respected and treated like equals
o Helps to develop reflective thinking
o Increased confidence, self esteem and aspirations
o Enables the workforce to become more motivated to get involved in their jobs
o Strengthens the feeling of community
o Develops teamwork
o Promotes more creative thinking
o Increases effective communication between workforce

Challenges of Listening to Workforce Voices

o Some of the workforce may be anxious about criticism of their work/leadership/communication skills
o Some of the workforce may be wary of the unpredictability of comments and views
o Some of the workforce may have reservations about voicing their opinions/blame culture
o Some of the workforce may worry about the loss of authority in their department
o Some of the workforce will not be prepared to accept the opinions of others
o Some of the workforce may use the opportunity to “take over” or dominate discussion areas
o Managing the initiative will call for careful planning/time constraints etc

Listening and Acting On Workforce Voices

2011-10-05T20:27:00.000+01:00

Premise

Can listening to and engaging with a workforce make a positive contribution-we believe it can as long as it is honest, authentic and can show that a "difference for the better" has emerged. We also believe that this will work in any organisation-large or small-providing the process is well managed.

Here are 3 areas for consideration

Principles
Benefits
Challenges

It Is With Anger and Disbelief!!

2011-10-02T13:20:00.000+01:00

The link takes you to an article published about a 16 years old girl called Dana. She had been

Sexually abused since she was 13
Groomed for abuse in a classic manner, by someone in authority and with credibility: someone she should have been able to trust
Removed from what is reported as a successful Foster Placement
Allocated multiple social workers (12 in 18 months)
Known to self-harm
Known to attempt suicide
Disbelieved

http://tinyurl.com/6dody59

I urge you to follow the link and read the story: whether you work directly with children, young people or vulnerable adults or not, take a couple of minutes and read not only what is said but (crucially), what is left unsaid.

We train professionals in Safeguarding and they are left in no doubt whatsoever as we deliver our programme-believe the child.

Dana found a friend in a trainee teacher who was told by the School’s Child Protection Officer that Dan was an attention seeker.

Without best guessing the outcome of the serious case review it seems that we are once again failing to protect the most vulnerable in spite of a series of what anyone, with the most basic awareness in Safeguarding would recognise as “classic indicators” of a potentially abusive or dangerous situation.

For the trainee teacher who Dana had befriended it is my hope that she/he is able to reconcile that they did the right thing and spoke to the right people: the responsibility for what transpired is shared elsewhere.

A NEW DEVELOPMENT TO MEET OUR PARTNERS’ NEEDS

2011-09-30T08:42:00.000+01:00

We now have access to a highly experienced and qualified Children’s Support Worker/Children’s Bereavement Counsellor who brings an extensive background of first-hand experience in supporting Children and Young People traumatic and challenging periods in their lives including:

Bereavement
Loss through separation/divorce
Working with terminally ill Children & Young People
Working with anger issues

We anticipate that the major benefit to Children, Young People and their Families will be option to access a skilled professional in partnership with their school.
For schools, colleges, academies and training organisations we feel confident that access to this development will enable them to enhance their existing support to young people in distressing circumstances.-we have developed training packages that can be modified to meet your organisation’s needs

Domestic Violence: Child, Young Person or Adult.

2011-09-30T08:39:00.000+01:00

Domestic Violence: Child, Young Person or Adult.

Background:

We are about to embark on a launch of our development programme which can be adapted for the all employers, training organisations, schools, academies and colleges and training establishments.

If you would like to find out more about how we could work with you, here are our contact details:

enquiries@coadyconsultants.co.uk

Telephone 0121-602-7191 (UK)

Mobile 07984409937

or of course, use the comment section on our Blog.

Domestic Violence-Awareness Raising.

Premise

In 2001 women represented 44% of the working age labour force. This figure is set to rise to 48% by 2012. In some specific areas, women will form the majority of the workforce. It is estimated that 1:4 women will experience domestic violence from men known to them and between 1:8-1:10 will have experienced it within the last year. A woman is at her most vulnerable at the point of leaving a violent relationship.

The Programme

Our programme is drawn from a nationally recognised (Home Office Approved) format providing practical approaches and in doing so establishes:

Domestic Violence accounts for almost 25% of violent crime
It crosses social and cultural boundaries
There are critical events when the targets of domestic violence are at their most vulnerable
Teachers, Mentors and other colleagues in the Education Workforce may be confided in by parents, carers or co-workers who have been the target of Domestic Violence and are at a point where they need informed assistance
The targets of Domestic Violence , their colleagues and managers need access to recent information, including signposting to support networks and practical steps for employers
Misinformed actions or suggestions may exacerbate an already dangerous situation

Members of the Education Workforce are ideally placed to recognise patterns of behaviour that may suggest a child, a parent/carer or an employee is under duress. We believe that we all place worker safety, safeguarding and security at the heart of our Duty of Care to their learners, parents and employees and would wish to develop a positive approach to supporting those who are/have been the targets of domestic violence. We also recognise the impact of Domestic Violence on Learner Achievement, Parental engagement and the investment lost to organisations in terms of skills and expertise when experienced colleagues leave their jobs at short-notice either as a direct or indirect outcome of domestic violence. Our programme will enable participants to

Acquire a working understanding of the processes targets are subjected to
Develop overview of perpetrator behaviour
Understand to support colleagues at the point of disclosure.

Learning Styles

Participative.
Presentation & Video Materials (Please note-video materials are “acted” and free from “Shock Tactics”)

Segregate or Integrate: Early Choices Challenge Inclusive Practice

2011-07-02T12:58:00.000+01:00

The Times Education Supplement (1/7/11) headline makes for sad reading: “Infants Expelled to Pupil Referral Units”. http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6092105&navcode=94 The headline is depressing enough: professionally it could have been written twenty years ago. What we saw at that time was an increased number of younger pupils being referred to off-site provision (later to be designated as PRU’s) pupils with a seemingly increasingly complex range of social, behavioural and emotional difficulties, (SEBD).

The terminology was different and the evolution of the descriptor SEBD would have been more helpful had it helped to engage some clearer thinking along the lines of “Now we’ve given it a name, what shall we do with it?” Here’s what I mean. The complexity is in the title: the child has social needs and cannot socialise: the child has behavioural needs and can not behave: the child has emotional needs and is not nurtured, secure or biddable to a point from which they might begin to engage with the needs of others

The notion that the above complexity of needs and the accompanying requirement to produce and deliver long term, sustainable intervention and support programmes when, to quote the article “The units are often used as a temporary “fix”….” is risible,: If this weren’t enough, the PRU’s role is made more complicated because, and to quote again, “Pupils at risk of exclusion are sent to PRU’s for specialist support that it is hoped will see them return to mainstream schools”

We have now what we began twenty years ago: Special Education on The Cheap. The establishment costs of PRU’s are lower than those of Special Schools and the relatively “assessment free” entry requirements means that (as ever) capacity will always be outstripped by demand.

It has been my privilege to be a Head Teacher in two PRU’s: secondary ones admittedly and to manage Behaviour Support Services in two Local Authorities. One of the more painful aspects of the former of the two roles was to tell parents that we were at a point in their child’s programme where we could consider seeking a return to Mainstream. The news was often unwelcome, with parents and carers stating that since being with us, their child had changed, was more settled, less problematic and that home life had improved for the better. They saw a return to Mainstream as an unwanted return to the very environment that had been the reason for their referral to our Centre.

The Advisory Centre for Education advocates that children’s needs should be assessed within the normal mainstream environment. Too often the peaks of extreme behaviours mean that this environment is far from normal as it responds to children whose anxieties are the product of circumstances outside of school. Children are as a result sometimes almost entirely unable to deal with the multiple inputs, instructions, constraints and relationships that feature in the “normal” classroom: the result is that the classroom and its relationship with the child is far from normal: it might be regular, it could be usual but let’s not fool ourselves, it is not normal.

In closing, I observe with some sadness that what we have in place at present is not working. It is neither segregationalist in its intention nor inclusive in its practice. Perhaps we need to reconfigure our thinking along the lines of “as much integration as is possible with as much supportive discrete provision as is necessary” and think about what the approach might mean in terms of developing high impact strategies based on a well focussed assessment of the child’s needs, the family’s circumstances and the adjustments and implications for reintroducing the child to mainstream or retaining him therein.

Our Domestic Violence Awareness Raising Programme: Evaluations

2011-02-07T19:35:00.000Z

What we have here is combined evaluation of the above, taking the results from the Customer's Evaluation and a slightly different approach, where participants are asked to write a couple of lines on a post card, detailing what the event meant to them: Thanks to Matt for your help in getting all of this together!

A West Midlands University February 2011: Human Resource Officers – Violence against Women by Men They Know – Domestic Violence and associated factors.

We were asked to run a development session regarding the implications of domestic violence and how it affects people in the workplace. It was an important session because statistics suggest that at least one in four people suffer domestic abuse at some point in their lives – which, for the participants, means that it is statistically probable that victims of domestic violence include people they know, and people they work with. The greater majority of the participants of the event wished to obtain a greater understanding of the issues that relate to domestic violence, not least of which the signs of what to look out for from somebody who may be suffering from it. From this; they would like to be able to listen to and offer guidance and advice to the relevant people. This in turn would help them in their job role as Human Resource Officers, though it was suggested by one participant that disclosures are not common.

Most of the participants agree that almost all of the objectives – both the objectives of the event and their personal learning objectives – had been achieved, one of which commented that the course “has covered all of the areas of domestic violence.” The constructive criticism that we received suggested that there wasn’t enough time to cover every aspect of such a large topic, particularly where it relates to recognising the signals that would point to signs of abuse. It was also specifically suggested that it would be useful to spend some time discussing how, as Human Resource Officers, domestic violence issues should be discussed when a member of staff discloses them. This comment will be taken into account when planning future presentations on this domestic violence; however it is recognised that it relates to the work objectives of this particular group.

We also use evaluations to monitor the quality of the materials used for the event. In this situation, there were some comments made about the case examples that we used, but the statistics that highlight the number of cases and the extent of the problem were seen as the more significant factor in increasing and improving the understanding of domestic violence amongst the participants. We received many comments describing the events and statistics as “eye opening,” expressing their surprise of how common and widespread the situation is. They also recognised the quality of John Dooner as the facilitator for this event, who was described as “Informative, tactful, sensitive to DV issues and [the] group,” and generated an active interest amongst the participants to this difficult topic.

We have some interesting and fair responses from the human resource officers. We have improved the understanding of issues of domestic violence with the people in the organisation who are in a position to act should it arise in the course of their duty. While we had very little control over the time constraints of the event, we ultimately feel that the content was arranged and delivered in the best interests of the people involved, and we hope to see the results of the impact we have made on their perceptions and conduct in issues of domestic violence.

"ONE LINE RESPONSES"

Having access to the information delivered in this programme can only make me more supportive and effective in my role.

A thought provoking session for all HR professionals (anon)

An eye opener for those who think life is perfect

I think that this course is definitely an eye opener as to what is going on in the real world. I found this course very helpful and informative.

Very useful and informative

Very informative, was surprised at the numbers involved.

Eye opening

A very eye-opening session! I didn’t realise how common this topic was until I saw the statistics.

Course provided an excellent overview of the subject and increased awareness of the feelings of the target and why they may behave in certain ways.

The course increased my understanding of the prevalence and “symptoms” of domestic violence, and how it can impact on ‘target.’

The percentage of women affected by domestic violence is a real eye-opener. It makes you realise that a large percentage of the workforce are affected. This training helps to give you a greater understanding of how you could support staff who are seeking help from someone.

It was an eye opener to find out how many women are abused/part of domestic violence and the behaviours of the perpetrators.

Very thought-provoking and challenging stuff, but a very valuable course.

A good comprehensive overview into the key issues of this thought-provoking area.

Very difficult topic – sadly more prevalent than you would anticipate. Thank you.

December Newsletter 2010

2011-01-10T15:15:00.001Z

THIS ACADEMIC YEAR

We have continued to deliver direct support to Children and Young People who are experiencing challenges that impact on their behaviour, attendance and performance we have worked alongside Leadership Teams, Mentors, Attendance Specialists and Data Managers

A NEW DEVELOPMENT TO MEET OUR PARTNERS' NEEDS

We now have access to a highly experienced and qualified Children's Support Worker/Children's Bereavement Counsellor who brings an extensive background of first-hand experience in supporting Children and Young People traumatic and challenging periods in their lives including:
Bereavement
Loss through separation/divorce
Working with terminally ill Children & Young People

It is intended that our new Associate Consultant will be available to work in existing partner schools and to extend our work to others from January 2010-more information will be available early in the new term.

We anticipate that the major benefit to Children, Young People and their Families will be option to access a skilled professional in partnership with their school.

For schools, colleges, academies and training organisations we feel confident that access to this development will enable them to enhance their existing support to young people in distressing circumstances.

Motivating Trainees.

The following write-up of our work was received after a Workforce Development Programme with Trinity Training, Wolverhampton. Excellent communications with Trinity Training resulted in our delivering an event that matched trainee and instructor needs.
http://www.trinity-training.com/

“We approached Coady Consultants in May 2010 seeking assistance in the development of an improvement plan relating to behaviour and classroom management. Since that time, John Dooner has worked with us, providing advice and resources to enable the views of all parties – staff and learners – to be obtained and analysed, and delivering staff training relating to the concerns that had come to light. We have been very impressed by John’s willingness to adapt his materials to suit our particular needs- he seemed to have an instinctive understanding of our requirements - , his attention to detail and his enthusiasm. The staff training day resulted in an on-going action plan and we may well seek John’s assistance with the implementation of this in the future.”

Janette Clough
Staff Development Manager

SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN YOUNG PEOPLE AND VULNERABLE ADULTS

A West Midlands University:
December 2010: Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults

As part of our on-going working relationship with a local university, we have worked with H.R professionals to develop Safeguarding Policies. Faculties and activity area have each nominated a Designated Representatives as a “first point of contact” for their particular area. Comments received from participants are heartening; most of who were looking to improve their understanding of Safeguarding issues, particularly with regard to policy and procedures.

Most felt that the objective of the event had “achieved stated aims,” the event being informative with “effective contextualisation and group discussion.” We have taken on board the small number of constructive comments

Participants felt that the course did much to improve their understanding of Safeguarding issues. They all responded positively, including one individual who was heavily involved in the drafting of the University’s current policy.

For many, the course reinforced knowledge that they already had, while at the same time increasing their confidence in dealing with such matters. One person who is relatively new to teaching commented that they found the event “Enjoyable, informative, thought provoking – left me reflecting on my practice.” Most of the participants agreed that attendance on the course would help them to achieve their work objectives. One of the participants who deals with these issues on a regular basis commented that while our course doesn’t answer all of the questions, it was “very useful indeed.”

All of the participants gave positive feedback regarding the delivery of the event, describing the tutor John Dooner as “knowledgeable, engaging [and] interesting,” with a “very friendly but clear delivery.” We have a significant pride in delivery quality of our presentations, and we were pleased to see that this occasion was no exception.

All in all we were very encouraged by the responses from the university. We have improved the understanding of these very serious issues with a substantial number of people who will now feed this information back to their relevant departments. We found such criticism as there was to be fair and constructive, and we’re looking forward to implementing the development points that they implicitly provide for us.

Keep Calm & Carry On

2010-12-30T09:06:00.001Z

This was a smashing little book was Christmas present from my daughter: one of those spontaneous ones (the book, not Beth) that often has a relevance beyond the original intention.

There was something of a slip in the original typing of the Title: I wrote "Keep Clam and Carry On" and whereas I have no problem with marine and freshwater bi-valves, they weren't supposed to feature here...however. "Keeping Clam" = "Keep Quiet" so maybe there's something worth thinking about here, namely the choices available to us when we can opt to speak or be quiet.

How many times do we pass on unsubstantiated gossip, partial truths, delicate pieces of information that benefit no-one and can result in great harm. When this happens, our poorly judged comment or intentional hurt has a inbuilt potential to come back and hurt us or to reduce our trustworthiness in the eyes of others.

Fairness for Your Future? Don't Aim Higher: Get Real & Limit Your Ambitions

2010-11-26T10:41:00.000Z

Aim Higher is an organisation that promotes access to Higher Education amongst non traditional groups. You know the ones I mean; bright young people who may have a series of factors that mean that they are less, rather than more likely to go to University. Aim Higher provides structured mentoring in their schools, access to a vast range of University experiences in years 10,11 and the sixth form and engagement with professionals who have "been there and done it." In any sane world it would be seen as a rock-solid investment in our collective futures. The government is withdrawing its funding-a paltry £78 Million.

True to form the coalition states that Universities will need to demonstrate that they are engaging with students from non-traditional backgrounds: if this is the case, the need to get their collective fingers out-Aim Higher Funding finishes in July.

It has been my privilege to work within Aim Higher's network in the West Midlands-working our way though a collective approach to Safeguarding Young People on Residential Summer Schools. There were 14 or so Universities involved meaning that learners from Coventry could go on a programme in Worcester, young people from Birmingham could experience programmes in Warwick and so on, all delivered by highly qualified University Lecturers and supported by well-trained and organised Aim Higher workers.This year, on one programme alone, somewhere in the region of 1200 young people benefited from the experience in the West Midlands and engagement in schools continues to be a major factor in motivating young people who-I restate-may come from disadvantaged backgrounds where expectations of progression into Higher Education are low.

There's an almost casual shrug to the assertion that Universities will, post Aim-Higher-need to show that they are engaging with non-traditional, disadvantaged groups. Unless there is some sharp thinking as to how they might work together to keep the collective knowledge, connections and excellent practice that exists within Aim Higher I can foresee expertise, creativity and money being wasted in the name of the pinch-faced dogma that masquerades as policy.
To conclude-the Coalitions's Spin Doctors seemed to have insisted that the words "Fair" and "Fairness" be dropped into conversations whenever possible. I'd be fascinated to hear how we match the concept of "fair" with the decimation of an organisation designed to deliver fairness to our future.

Worrying Signs and Concerning Noises

2010-10-05T02:17:00.000+01:00

Worrying Signs and Concerning Noises

I was surprised to read the linked article-seven out of ten teachers want to quit their jobs because of badly behaved pupils http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/seven-out-of-10-teachers-want-to-quit-survey-shows-2096257.html and every bit as concerning for me is the implicit assertion that some sort of deregulation will help. Deregulate what exactly?
Statute tells us that we may use “reasonable force”, what seems to be absent from the debate is reference to criminal (case) law that gives the profession some working definition related to what “reasonable” might look like. The teaching profession, as things stand, is right to err on the side of caution-headline cases often resulting in the end of a teaching career. There’s a wider agenda running here and it’s to do with the coalition’s assertion that there is something fundamentally wrong with our state system that can be improved by throwing further confusion at an already demoralised profession-the Charter School.“ Here’s something from Michael Gove:
“He has insisted - along with other Democrat reformers like Arne Duncan, Joel Klein and Michelle Rhee – that there be more great Charter schools – the equivalent of our Academies– to drive up attainment, especially among the poorest. In New York, Charter schools – like the inspirational Knowledge is Power Programme schools - have dramatically narrowed the vast performance gap between black and white children and 91% of those benefitting are on free or reduced price meals.
With a relentless focus on traditional subjects, a culture of no excuses, tough discipline, personalised pastoral care and enthusiastic staff who work free from Government bureaucracy to help every child succeed, these schools are amazing engines of social mobility that are now sending children from ghetto areas to elite universities.” http://www.michaelgove.com/content/national_college_annual_conference
Michael Gove’s commitment to the potential of Charter Schools may well have been increased by his support of and work with Frances Lawrence, widow of the London Head Teacher, Philip Lawrence-murdered in a gang-related incident outside of his school and I personally applaud the support he has given to a process that has rewarded good citizenship and supported legislation to ban knives.
How do we as communities address the problems that exist on our streets and in our houses and family lives that contribute to the uncertainties that contribute to 70% of surveyed teachers and, at their most extreme, are in part responsible for the murder of a good man, inspirational leader and gifted headteacher?
Margaret Thatcher’s assertion that “There is no such thing as society” was part of statement that suggested that there are “individual men and women and there are families” and that the use of the term “society” had become a byword with which to explain a dependency culture: it was the government’s job to sort out problems. The same government that did almost nothing other than at its best preside over and at its worse seek to influence the factors that led to the collapse of the heavy industries that were part of the foundations that underpinned society.

So now, “society” is failing to get a fair deal from schools that are bound by bureaucracy-this from the party of government whose reforms of the late eighties and early nineties saw a disproportionate increase in form filling in the name of accountability that has seldom been replicated and the part answer if to consider a system-Charter Schools-that is succeeds in a different culture where the gap between rich and poor experienced would be unacceptable in every aspect to British Society.
In a letter to the New York Times, J.D. Merriman, Chief Executive of the Charter School Center (sic) refers to the stringent reviews of groups who wish to start Charter Schools, that they (the schools) should be held in account for achieving the outcomes promised and that this has to be underpinned (Charter Schools or otherwise) by one of New York’s great assets, a well motivated and cohort of Principles and Teachers who place achievement at the top of their agenda.
So, how does this square with the current position: where will the well motivated cohort of leaders and teachers emerge, to whom will they be accountable, how will achievement be recognised and how will high standards of behaviour be maintained?
Almost twenty years ago I accepted the Headship of a Pupil Referral Unit in Birmingham: our population was made up of three categories. Fixed Term Excluded, Permanently Excluded and Indefinitely Excluded. Indefinite Exclusions made up the larger proportion of the Centre’s population and existed largely “off the radar” of their Mainstream school-gone quietly, no fuss and the money remained with the schools.
Schools had two routes open to them. Exclude or Statement of Special Education Needs-in 1997-1998 around 12,300 (.16 of the total school population) Children and Young People were excluded from school, by 2008-2009 there had been a massive adjustment to 6550 (.09 of the total school population). During the same period, the number of Statemented Children in mainstream schools has risen.
In the late nineties and early part of this decade I headed up Behaviour Support services in two West Midlands Authorities and part of the job was to provide access to support personnel who could work within schools, with learners, their parent and teachers and, at the same time, make it more challenging for schools to exclude. This against the background noise of increased accountability and bureaucracy and increased pressure on the centralised capacity to offer the provision needed to make a major impact, the prevailing mantra to schools on a national scale seeming to be “You must cope”.
Money taken from the Centre made its way into schools budgets: it is my belief that the competing demands of providing support and discipline and of being simultaneously pro-active and reactive has significantly diluted the impact of work schools can offer to learners who challenge, fractured families who are unable to assist us and the increased realisation that there are hard, hard times to come.
The “improvement” (reduction) in permanently excluded pupils hides in my view, a substantial contributory factor to teacher stress and demoralisation and here it is. The behaviour that once resulted in exclusion has not significantly changed. It is contained differently. Increased budgetary pressure on other front line services has reduced the capacity to respond as well as we might-the pressure on Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, Social Care and other Local Authority Support Services has increased the tensions and frustrations that surround challenging children in difficult circumstances.
The answer is not to further dismantle the capacity to deliver cohesive and coordinated responses. Neither is to be found in suggesting to interest groups that all that is needed is to set up a Charter School and within “One Leap Jack Was Free” of the constraints of State provision all will be well-this does a disservice to all concerned.
Making it “easier” for teachers to use physical intervention places us all in a difficult place-what is reasonable? When is it unreasonable? Who should be trained? And at the very time we seem to be the potential architects of a concerning tension that will encompass Safeguarding issues, I note the resignation of Jim Gamble from CEOP following the Home Secretary’s decision to incorporate it into the National Crime Agency.
The Vetting & Barring Scheme and I.S.A may well be regarded as too bureaucratic to survive in their current format at a time when careful thought should be given to who we recruit and how, should we go along the route of Charter Schools.
There’s unlikely to be a simple answer-experienced professionals require affirmation of their status, let them contribute to the debate on behavioural standards, levels and types of intervention needed and the capacity building required to increase job satisfaction and reduce the impacts created by children and young people whose challenging behaviour make their continued presence in Mainstream Education a problematic blight on outcomes, achievement and happiness for the wider school community.

Bear Trap Avoidance # 1 "Can I Just Have A Minute?"

2010-09-12T19:32:00.000+01:00

My recent work with Middle Managers has been hugely enjoyable. Challenging, practical and pragmatic they hold high aspirations for themselves, their teams and the organisation, with a firm grip on the difficult times and challenges we all face (a substantial proportion of my work is delivered in the public sector.
One of the more common areas of discussion is centred around how to deal with challenging individuals who might be on their way to becoming Toxic Employees. Another concerns the words and phrases we can use to maintain dialogue at difficult times and how to signal “No” in a manner that is acceptable to those concerned.
Here are some of the common themes I’ve worked around over the recent past-some of what follows is tongue in cheek enough, underpinned by some serious messages.
There are some avoidable Bear Traps and the first one I’d like to raise is the balance between an “open door” policy and having your day systematically hi-jacked so that your activities become compressed into a claustrophobically small space. Open door policies are great and I think they send out clear messages of accessibility, inclusivity, respect, worth and value. I’m of the view though that they are at their most productive when everyone understands that access should no be abused-an open door is not an invitation to hi-jack precious time with trivia.
“Can I just have a couple of minutes of your time?” How often is that seemingly innocent question a coded way of asking “Any objections of I just screw up the next 45 minutes of your working day and put you off your concentration for the following hour, make you late for an appointment and miss returning a phone call?” However, because we’re generally decent people, we sometimes have a tendency to freely give our time away, giving the intruder a method of obtaining what they want; namely a legitimate reason for being away from where they need to be and doing what they should have been doing. Ironically, the desire of the “open door manager” to be accessible in order to raise performance actually complies with the undesirable intentions of others to develop a deceptively subtle work-avoidance strategy that costs them nothing.
So, at the time the question is asked, maybe an enquiry along the lines of “Is it really just a couple of minutes or do we need to book a slot” would increase our control. “I’ve got to be at X by Y, so I can give you 5 minutes” should mean just that. The temptation often exists to give of yourself without considering the messages transmitted. “I was talking to John about this and he agrees,” might not be what John was saying at all-he may well have been delivering a series of “I’m listening” messages that have been interpreted-perhaps opportunistically-as tacit approval with unwanted consequences.
Oh by the way, look out for the power of words like "just"-they're another Bear Trap for later!

So: This Is What We're Heading Towards!

2010-07-09T10:12:00.000+01:00

There have been some interesting developments this weeks with the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove delivering a monumentally flawed overview of the new Academies Programme by first stating that some were safe, only to say in a later release that there had been a clerical error and some that thought they were safe weren’t. Anyway, he’s said sorry so that must be alright must it not? The corrected statement contained clerical errors too, a good/bad week for clerical errors depending on how you look at things.
A recent Times Education Supplement article pointed out that many academies were pushing up their pass rates by entering lower ability learners into non-academic subjects were passes are easier to achieve. Really? I’m shaken to the core of my being.
Research tells us that schools with a number of residual problems in lower attainment, poor facilities and low expectations have opted for academy status and I can see why. Apart from enabling a greater sense of self determination, it enables them to draw a line under the past and start again with some new and invigorating approaches to teaching and learning. Part of this approach includes curriculum developments that reach out to engage young people who might otherwise effectively “switch off” from their education and fuel a downwards spiral of poor engagement in employment, education and training.
Too many years ago now, I used to moderate courses developed and marketed by both City & Guilds and B.Tec. They were an honest attempt to change the direction of young people who were vulnerable to voting with their feet and simply not attending or creating “hot spots” in the school timetable. Overall, the level of engagement was better than might have been expected had we stayed within the more traditional curriculum.
So, academy leadership teams realise that they are about transformation and that one of the transformative strategies will be to increase the options available to the “new disaffected” (these are, I suspect, very much similar to the old ones), who are at risk of becoming NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) and will need a different skill set to remain engaged in the education/training process. Information tells us that at risk learners are likely to reside in poorer areas with higher risk and vulnerability factors and yes, poorer schools in terms of fabric, catchment and results at out-turn, higher exclusion and absent rates with greater teacher turn over. The Academies Programme was, at least in part, I feel at genuine and honest attempt to reverse the trend.
The newly elected coalition had a golden opportunity to state that whatever else needed to be cut and trimmed (slashed and burned?), education would remain its highest priority and would be resourced accordingly. It’s a depressing start: let’s begin to water down the strength of the Vetting and Barring Scheme (big government = very bad) and at the same time suggest to parents and other “interested groups” that they might wish to open schools in closed down shops. Then let’s move quickly and give the National Curriculum’s QCDA the coup de grace and do away with BECTA. Gove has gone on record as saying that academies should have greater freedom re qualifications (26/5/10) and then tells a substantial number of them “No, you only thought you were going to be one, now your not: clerical error-happens all the time.”
So, where are we? Sandwell, worst hit by clerical errors is one of the poorer areas in the UK and its needs unsurprisingly speak with a powerful voice about what should be in place to enable people to live better lives. Education standards need to rise: their Academies programme has been decimated and a further 90+ redundancies have been issued at Sandwell College, an innovative and eclectic organisation that meets the needs of a diverse community. Today’s news tells us the government is considering re-allocating the funding in Primary Care Trusts to GP’s. What I see here as a return to provision at the Parish Pump.
Those with money can and will buy their way out of the mess by moving to areas where there are “better” schools or, it would seem, opening one of their own. Much as the public perception of “The Successful Fee Paying School” might be about standards, it’s often a more complex social reasoning that persuades some parents to say, “I want my child to mix with people other than those who attend school x” and as long as we continue to leave school x to its own devices, it is unlikely that there will be a significant change.
One stop health shops, the bringing together of community health, access to services have their impacts most keenly felt in areas of high need and it’s a long hard slog to turn around some of the crushing social factors that have militated against progress and development: mark my words, it’s Housing next.
Some flagship decisions mooted this week will have long-lasting consequences. It’s a great life; just don’t have the wrong post-code, go to the wrong school, be unemployed, sick, old or poor.
Well done everyone: a promising start!

Fly The Flag: Stick The Sticker!

2010-05-29T12:32:00.001+01:00

First things first, I’m Irish. I’ve lived in England almost all of my life and I like it here. Next, Ireland’s failure to get to the finals was in part down to an awful refereeing decision and the never endingly perplexing stance on 18 yard box technology generally, goal line technology particularly. Last: I shall be supporting England in the World Cup.
We in the U.K have been through some pretty challenging times and with many others I suspect that they’re far from over. A recent poll in LinedIn suggested that there was a strong belief (around 81% of respondent if I remember correctly) that things were likely to remain uncertain in the Global Economy for a while.
There hasn’t been too much to smile about over the last 20 months or so and it is clear that there are some bruising encounters ahead for people who may have previously thought their job to be secure, their future safe and subsequent plans in place. The jarring reality is that this is not, for the vast majority of us, the case.
The World Cup? A chance for people to park, just for a while, the fears and anxieties they’re dealing with and get behind the England Team. It’s been great to see the Cross of St George flying as the anticipation builds, good to read articles on how managers may wish to implement some flexible working arrangements for the period and uplifting to feel “part of the party”.
Today I read that the party has been pooped. Enterprise, the major Public Service contractor has, it would seem, informed its employees that stickers must not be stuck to or flags flown from any of its vehicles because of Health & Safety issues, stating that the Health & safety of their employees, customers and the general public is paramount. Good for them.
It would be very wrong to jeopardise the well being of the population by allowing a refuse collection lorry to fly an England flag. Do these people not realise that a sudden change in wind-speed or direction may have an adverse effect on handling and vehicle stability? In cities and rural communities, the hitherto unheard of sound of a flag, flapping on the wind of progress from a vehicle may inflict trauma on hens and hoodies alike.
Stickers in windscreens too present a hazard that is almost incalculable in its potential to cause multi vehicle pile ups from motorway to middle England as vast tracts of the driver’s vision are obliterated by massively intrusive ermmmm….stickers.
Given the hard times we’ve been through and the tough challenges ahead, I wonder if it would be alright, just for a few weeks, to let people enjoy themselves in a relatively harmless expression of national unity and purpose. I know some will take it too far and make the headlines for all the wrong reasons; life is a bit like that at Christmas and New Year too. I’m convinced though that the majority of us will enjoy the life, get involved with the competition and bring some “feel good” back into our lives generally and the workplace specifically.
I know it’s not for everyone; that shouldn’t mean that we can’t all benefit in someway from the sense of unity and hopefully pride and success that waits. Maybe, Enterprise, you might wish to reconsider your decision and do the grown up thing: issue your drivers with flags for their vehicles and a windscreen sticker that suits, together with a full set of instructions!

Emotional Intelligence, Football Managers, the Sack and the Press

2010-05-13T21:15:00.002+01:00

Not a combination you’d probably expect to find!
Gianfranco Zola was sacked as manager of West Ham United at the beginning of this week, 10th May 2010.
A change of owners at his club would suggest that he was more rather than less likely to exit, given that the club had underperformed. Injuries to key players, others not performing to expectations and financial uncertainty in the background: factors I’m sure we’re either used to or about to become more familiar than we’d like.
“Relieved of duties”, “We thank him and wish him well”. There are no easy platitudes or euphemisms that disguise the brutal fact-sacked.
The press took themselves off to his house in Kent, and as almost always is the case, Zola emerged smiling to meet the press core. He told them that he could say nothing about his sacking –legal proceedings to follow and proceeded to pour some coffee he had made for them. “I can’t talk to you about the sack, but I can offer you some coffee”.
The press are an understandably hard nosed bunch, yet on that day at that moment all present seemed to be disarmed and charmed by a generous man who, though he could not give them what they wanted, was able to show concern and care for, not “the press core” but for other human beings with a job to do.
This investment in the well-being of others will see him in good stead, the lasting reminder of a smiling, polite and open man who, when at the bottom of a pretty deep pit, was still able to engage with others in a manner that further underpins their collective respect towards him.
We all have our bad days, sometimes we can lock ourselves away, sometimes we have to go out and put on the bravest of faces and share what is good and worthwhile whilst acknowledging that right now and at this time, we’re not in the best of places.

Cook Your Way To Social & Emotional Intelligence

2010-01-14T17:38:00.000Z

Is there a link between the work I do with young people in schools and other company activities? I'd like to think so. We have built high quality working relationships with schools that purchase a service from us, delivering individual mentoring programmes to more generic support to young people, their teachers and mentors. This means that there opportunities to try something different.

I had delivered a piece of work to a group of year 8 & 9 boys. Their profiles were familiar enough-quarrelsome, poor concentration spans and a series of risk/vulnerability factors. We had talked a lot and made efforts to help them prepare to take a higher degree of responsibility for and ownership of the image they project to others.

Talk is fine but it's actions that count and with this in mind I suggested to them that they might consider choosing the ingredients for, preparing, coking and serving a Christmas Meal for some of their teachers and mentors. We had to restrict it to eight. Their invitation list included the Head Teacher, Assistant Head and two members of the Senior Management Team. Learning Mentors and a subject specialist were also invited.

We shopped, they chose and stayed within budget. We met the following day and working to a tight timescale, produced the meal-ably and enthusiastically led by a Senior Support Assistant who clearly enjoys a first class, respect led relationship with the lads.
They did it! They cooked and served a 3 course Christmas Meal. There was, I think, a considerable amount of emotion around the table: what had taken place was much bigger than the sum of its parts and at what still, in spite of financially pressed times, commercialism and cynicism, Christmas remains an important time of year every adult around the table received an unexpected gift when the Head Teacher asked the lads what they would take away from and remember about the occasion. Although all the food had been eaten, several of us swallowed very hard one one of the cooks said "Your faces when we served the meal."

How does this link to our other activities? Well, reputations get tarnished, we are all capable of huge acts of self sabotage and we sometimes need an opportunity to prove to others that there is more to us than the day to day, sometimes highly reactive exposure we have to each other. When this opportunity arises, it needs to be witnessed and affirmed by respected others who need to hear the perceived impact of "doing things better and differently". Whether as a Coach, Mediator, Teacher, Mentor, there are experiences that occur daily that mean as much in one context as they do in another. I drove away that evening with much more in my heart and soul than I had arrived with earlier or dreamed possible. For not the first time, the Coach was coached, the Teacher was taught and the Mediator was not needed when this leap of faith was taken.

Mediation Tools & Approaches

2009-12-08T09:22:00.000Z

Mediation Tools & Approaches: "docs"

Safeguarding Children: The Importance of Training

2009-10-02T03:34:00.000+01:00

I'm certain readers share the sense of shock that surrounds the Plymouth Nursery Worker who abused her position and the trust that went with it, abusing children for the gratification of herself and others. Vanessa George gained the trust of the families she met professionally and was invited to baby-sit for them at evenings and week-ends.
For those families who granted her access to their children, access based on trust and good-intention, I find it hard to imagine the sense of outrage, betrayal and guilt they may feel.
We are currently delivering Safeguarding Training to Trainee Teachers and other members of the Children's Workforce at a local university. The section on safe practice invites trainees to suspend disbelief; the disbelief that would be abusers would seek employment within the Children's Workforce specifically to gain access to children and their families and that in doing so they seek positions that combine trust and power.
It's a difficult and challenging session-not always easy to hear but nonetheless one that I feel has a vital role to play in increasing the awareness of all concerned on the sorts of opportunities paedophiles will seek to exploit in order to gain access to their targets.

From The Heart

2009-08-01T09:32:00.000+01:00

We very recently carried out a day's development and training delivering our "Conflict to Confidence" programme to a training organisation that engages with disaffected 14-16 year olds and delivers Entry to Employment and Apprenticeship training to groups with high risk and vulnerability factors.
Part of the programme asks participants to develop a "Two of Us In a Lift" conversation; the premise of which is to as participants to think of someone who they admire, would like to meet and to imagine that you are in a lift with this person-they ask you "What do you do for a living, what makes it the right job for you?" You have 60 seconds to reply and get your message across. When I've delivered this before I've had some really interesting, comical and sometime raunchy characters make their way into the lift-all great fun. This time was made different by 3 participants, two of who chose their deceased fathers as the person they would most want to tell how well they'd done and what they'd achieved. A third chose his grandfather, a stroke victim whose speech has been affected-he wanted the chance to have a "real" conversation with him.
Presenting programmes is great-it's one of the very best parts of our work. This occasion was a powerful reminder of the worth of "Good Work" in contributing to our awareness of who we are and what we stand for in an often difficult and challenging world.

Use of Praise-Worth It or Too Soft and Fluffy?

2009-06-09T17:38:00.000+01:00

The idea of praise “for everyone and for everything” detracts from the need to (apologies to Bill Rogers) to “be caught doing good.” The manner in which acknowledgement/praise is delivered would seem to be critical to its success. I have experienced young people who would rather chew broken glass coated with cyanide than be singled out for praise-however this does not mean that they are incapable of or unwilling to respond when their achievements are acknowledged in a manner consistent with their wants and need. Maybe like criticism, praise sometimes needs to be softly spoken.
I despair of the rose tinted rear-view mirror view of the past. Forty years ago I attended a Birmingham Comprehensive school that had its fair share of staff that would use this approach regularly and often. It achieved absolutely nothing. Staff who gained respect gained it because of their ability to create and work within clear boundaries that included a proportionate response to challenge in the context of a firm, fair and friendly approach to the pupils.
Like it or not, the use of praise needs to figure on a continuum of approaches that acknowledge both wanted and unwanted behaviour,
Our company delivers esteem raising programmes to learners who may have “slipped below the “praise radar”, have low aspirations and are achieving below potential. The proportionate use of praise combined by work with and support of the workforce (Learning Mentors, Behaviour Managers) has made an impact-sustainability is a further and different challenge.
I welcome approaches that allow us to “build up credit” in the learner’s emotional bank and model relationships that recognise the importance of calibrating success and confronting unwanted behaviour.

Personal Planning for Retirement

2009-05-19T02:40:00.000+01:00

WORK/LIFE CHANGES APPROACHING?

We so often define ourselves through our jobs that it can be challenging to think about who we will be when we choose change, or circumstances mean that we have to change.
What are we talking about?
When you start out in your career, you spend time and effort making plans, developing ideas to carry you through the years that follow. Making sure you leave nothing to chance regarding decisions which will affect your career. Does that sound like you?
When you are approaching retirement, you have the benefit of experience, knowledge about what works for you, time to develop and fine tune interests you have never had time for, family grown up and maybe even left home, all kinds of opportunities.
But not everyone looks forward to retirement as a positive move. For many people, it is a time of uncertainty, worries about who they are, what will they do, what can they achieve, how will they be identified.
In your working life, you were known as a teacher, accountant, salesman, driver, office worker, nurse etc, you had an identity because of the job you did. But what about during retirement? Who will you be then?
The answer is you can be anyone you chose, because you have the time to develop the skills, take on new interests, learn how to be yourself again.
Look at the following questions/statements; see if you answer a quiet “YES” to any of them:
Am I approaching retirement in the next 2 years?
I am looking forward to it.
Am I concerned about what I will do with myself?
Am I concerned about how to keep my mind active?
Am I dreading the thought of no routine in my life?
Have I always been governed by strict times/bells at work?
Has my career involved other people making decisions for me?
Am I feeling less than confident about retirement?
Do I have concerns that I can’t express to my nearest and dearest?
I have a long term plan which will guide me through my retirement.
Do I need some help to devise plans to develop me into retirement?
Do I see retirement as the end of my life as I know it?
I have someone I can talk to someone about how I feel.

Have you answered a quiet “yes” to any of these questions?
Do you recognise that you need to plan your retirement to get the best out of it?
You have all of the answers you need, but maybe you need some help to put those plans into some kind of order. Retirement is as important as your working life, possibly more so, because you will make the choices about what you do, how you do it, who you are. You have worked all of your life, now work at enjoying your retirement.
We, at Coady Consultants Ltd, offer you the opportunity to work with one of our Personal Coaches who will provide Coaching for Personal Development into Retirement. This will involve working with you to look at the concerns you have, removing barriers, prioritising, planning.
WE ARE NOT FINANCIAL OR LEGAL ADVISORS, we are professionals in our field of personal development.
We can help you to find the answers you need in order to make your retirement a successful one. We can encourage you to develop the thinking, strategies, planning and self awareness which will allow you the opportunity to look retirement in the face and say “I AM PREPARED AND LOOKING FORWARD TO IT.”
Our by-line, as a company is “Working with you to improve”, so, here’s your chance to find out. We can work with you to improve your chances of enjoying the retirement you have worked so hard for.
If you would like further information, please contact us enquiries@coadyconsultants.co.uk

Coaching In Workplace-Enabling Interventions

2009-05-19T02:30:00.000+01:00

Coaching In Workplace-Enabling Interventions

Coady Consultants understand the challenges Leaders and Managers face in recruiting and retaining their workforce. We know that substantial investments of finance, time and emotional energy are made in training and developing individuals and teams. We fully understand the cost, both in human and financial terms, when valued colleagues encounter challenges either at work or in their personal lives. We have been approached by Senior Mangers to work with colleagues who it is felt may need to look at their approaches to their work role. When we are asked to do this, we understand the massive investment of trust made in us by managers and those we work with. We understand that each individual is unique and we respond to their specific circumstances accordingly.
We understand too the need for employers to deliver their duty of care to their workforce. Here are some examples of how we can assist.

§ We have been approached by Leaders and Managers and worked with team-members where it is felt that an individual tem-member may benefit from increasing the inter-personal options and communication strategies they have available to them that in turn enable them to work more effectively with others.

§ We have worked with long standing and valued employees who may be experiencing a difficult time in their lives and whose performance is becoming a cause for concern.

§ We have enabled individuals to begin to resolve sometimes complex areas of life/work balance, increasing their sense of well-being and achievement on doing so.

§ We have helped individuals come to terms with aspects of their personal-life that are having an unwanted impact on their work-based performance

§ We have enabled individuals to, on occasions, re-align their goals and ambitions. In a minority of cases this has resulted in the individual making choices that ensure a “dignified exit” for all concerned-enabling them to move on with a sense of resolution, closure and purpose.

§ We have enable individual to accept mediation as a means of resolving inter-personal difficulties in the work place.

Every intervention is supported by a Coaching Plan, this included a confidentiality agreement and stresses that our work is not advice, therapy or counselling may address specific personal projects or general conditions in the client’s life or profession. We are able, where agreed, to support our interventions by “e-coaching” and telephone coaching.

Choose To Change

2009-05-11T01:44:00.000+01:00

Teams fascinate me! The presence and sometime absence of interaction, where the real power lies and how the team talks about itself add up to an exciting series of questions, the answers to which can be a little disturbing. Like icebergs, the visible bit isn’t what we need to be concerned about, it’s what goes on underneath that sets the real climate.

We have been invited to work with a number of teams and I want to out together an outline of what we do. Some of this will have been discussed in other blogs-some elements will be new-however that is very much the way of working in an exciting and developmental role. Some time ago, at a particularly intransigent period in my professional life, I was advised that “If the only tool in your box in a hammer, you will treat every problem as if it were a nail!” Since that day I resolved to carry a comprehensive box of tools around with me and to use them!
I like to start with a few questions well in advance of the event-I need participants to understand that this is a great opportunity to move things forward and that they should take their individual roles seriously by committing themselves to some pre-work. This is always feed back in anonymity as a “Team Overview”.

There are some important core areas to work through. No matter whom we are and what we are doing, we would be very unwise to reject the notion that in these challenging and insecure times your job is an asset. I don’t want to frighten people but it is sometimes worth spending a few minutes getting them to think what life would be like without it. I ask participants to accept that, whatever we’re doing it can be done cheaper by someone else and to accept what we all know: most expensive isn’t always best, cheapest isn’t always worst. I want the answers to these questions:

§ Who are we and what are we like?
§ What values and beliefs do we stand for?
§ How do we know?
§ What impression do we give to our customers?
§ Do we know who they are and what they want from us?
§ What are the impacts of our behaviour on others: our co-workers, our managers, our customers, our competitors?
§ Who would miss us if we weren’t there?
§ Why?

It’s a challenging session. I’m deliberately taking participants beyond what a valued colleague described as “nodding dog syndrome” (sorry to all our nodding dog readers!) and into asking some tough questions about their professional identity. I’m saying to them: the way you present yourself, talk about your job, your boss, your colleagues, the language you use and the conversations you have are your very own “designer label”. Let’s be very careful about the association we want others to make because of the labels we wear and present to the outside world. Like a bumper sticker, they’re with us all the time and whereas we may have forgotten that the sticker was still there, everyone else can see it and will assume something about us because it’s there. If that sounds a tad harsh I make no apologies: live with it. We can choose to change our personal labels and stickers sometimes we just have to take a hard look to see if there are any that are visible to others only because we’ve forgotten about them-things have moved on since we first put them there!

There’s a real conflict between our need to change and our need to retain stability. We’re biologically set up to retain “sameness”. When we’re too hot we need to cool down and vice-versa: we want to reach a point of sameness most of the time. We accept inevitable change, the seasons, life, death, joy and grief and in doing so try to hang on to those things that we think should stay the same yet change at an accelerated pace: our jobs, our roles and relationships and the expectations of others.

Some stability is desirable, some change is inevitable-it is we that choose how we deal with change-led challenges. Teams grow, contract and adapt-the way the team is led, the vales transmitted within spread leadership, the type of dialogue developed enable us to better understand what it we need to do to deliver our roles in a shifting context.

Our programmes encourage participants to take an honest audit of what it is they believe in and what they can do at an individual level to contribute to the well being of the whole. We can not wish away the pressure for change in a rapidly changing context-at the end of one of our Team Development Days it is our belief that participants will have a greater understanding of what they need to do, to change and to “be” to deliver their role with a degree of integrity.

It is with more than a nod to Steven Covey’s excellent work that I state that adapting your personality is easy enough, delivering on your character is a different thing altogether our work gives an opportunity (without over-doing the navel gazing!) to help and challenge people to better understand their characters in the context of the work place as an aspect of their day-to day being: we give participants the tools with which to Choose to Change

Implementing Organisational Coaching and Mentoring

2009-05-04T12:07:00.000+01:00

Introduction

This is an "active piece of work": we'll update as things develop!

Coady Consultants has delivered a Coaching and Mentoring Skills Based Programme to Middle Managers with the following intended outcomes:

To up-skill Managers
To introduce a range of materials to support the processes
To rehearse and practice skills and approaches
To agree on developing a professional support group
To further develop and extend the skills gained within the context.
Is significantly different in its approach to existing structures:
1:1 Meetings
Key Performance Indicators
Appraisal
To work within the contexts of Ethical Behaviour and Human Dignity

The programme has combined the key elements of coaching and mentoring in order to produce an intervention and support strategy that is specific, flexible accessible and replicable. It enables participants to establish goals that are in kilter with organisational needs and requirements whilst retaining a high degree of personal ownership.

Participants have explored the ethical context of the intervention; have acquired an overview of the importance of clarity, rapport and feedback. An established coaching model (The GROW model) has been deployed within the context of the programme. Feedback was positive: participants established support networks (4 above) prior to leaving the event with the intention of engaging with each other on specific areas of work. Whereas it was felt important to allow a period of time for participants to engage with each other and to practice the approaches discussed during the Development Day, it is noted that participants felt that they would need a period of ongoing support as they implemented the processes and incorporated them into their practice.

Securing the Development

We are in a position to offer participants access to further support from the programme facilitator using the following model.
Our client purchases an initial allocation of on-going support from the facilitator. Participants are then able to contact Coady Consultants to “book” a specific telephone support, enabling both parties to:

Set aside a specific amount of time
Reduce the likelihood of interruptions
Be focussed on the issues for discussion

Telephone calls can be further underpinned by access to e-mail support from Coady Consultants on matters related either to emergent issues from the development day or those which are related to practice. It is envisaged that this would be delivered on a “purchased entitlement” basis.

Spreading Good Practice

The initial cohort of 10 has been asked to engage with other Managers to model and deliver the Coach/Mentor processes. It is clear from individual and collective responses to the programme that the group will deploy the techniques used with their own teams.

Coaching led approaches within organisations can make a significant impact on morale, motivation and matching personal and organisational goals. Whereas the programme delivered combines specific elements of Coaching and Mentoring, it emphasises that a coaching relationship should be a consensual one. Furthermore, our development programme acknowledges that there will (hopefully infrequently) be occasions when the relationship between the Coach/Mentor and their “Client” is no longer sustainable and an alternative Coach/Mentor may be better suited to the process.

We would therefore seek to increase the number of the Company’s Workforce who have had access to the development in order to:

Increase the workforces’ awareness of coaching/mentoring processes
Increase the workforces’ capacity to deliver coaching/mentoring processes
Increase the workforces’ capacity to receive coaching/mentoring processes

We are therefore proposing that consideration is given to extending the Coach/Mentor delivery programme to a wider cohort of the Workforce over a phased and agreed period and that the Telephone/e-mail support strategy discussed earlier be incorporated as part of the process.

Coaching & Mentoring-Bringing It Together

2009-05-02T20:49:00.000+01:00

We were approached by an existing customer organisation to explore the use of a combination of coaching and mentoring approaches to increase the confidence and competence of mid managers in order to develop teams and individuals across the company. Our remit was to create something different to appraisals and 1:1 supervision. There’s a difference between Coaching and Mentoring-so to start with a couple of definitions

Coaching

“Coaching is a one-to-one interactive relationship that helps people identify and accomplish their personal and professional goals faster than they could do on their own.”

Mentoring

“A slightly less formal arrangement that allows participants to access support as and when they feel it to be necessary.”

Our client wanted to develop the supportive aspects of mentoring together with some of the more specifically targeted features of coaching”

The programme was designed and delivered to embrace three areas: Mentor, Professional Friend and Facilitator.

Fabulous results-high quality evaluations, follow-up work and a satisfied client.
The drive from the North West of England to the Midlands, is on one of the busiest motorways in the country. The M6 was a joy that night,
We’re going to underpin our programme with a support strategy that involves telephone and e-mail contacts with those who attended the event. They have, with minimum prompting, arranged a mutual support work. It’s a National organisation and where geography is in the way, video-conferencing has been organised.

Fantastic!!

Lunch Time Supervisors-An Authority Approached Us....

2009-04-20T20:41:00.000+01:00

Lunch Time Supervisors: Beginning The Journey

February for the shortest month of the year, February can seem to last forever; the buzz of Christmas and New Year has long since past and this year was a cold, snow and slush laden affair that made Summer seem a long way off.
It’s always great to get a telephone call asking if we’d be interested in some work-it lifts the spirits and refocuses our energies and puts some energy into thinking and planning for the future.
A local authority contact had found us through the Web Site (www.coadyconsultants.co.uk )and was very interested in our Lunch Time Supervisor Development Programme: could we deliver it, to a series of Local Authority Secondary Schools in April, with a catch-up session in May? Our resources created a really favourable impression and the contract was agreed.
One of our Associate Consultants delivered the package-the feedback has been hugely encouraging: for the vast majority of those attending this was the first exposure they had received to training that acknowledged the huge contribution their role makes to the health, safety and well being of learners during the lunch period.
There is something very powerful about dignity achieved through recognition. Participants want to develop their skills and understanding of how they can better contribute to outcomes for learners and to work with Senior Managers and Duty Teams to improve the lunch-time experience for all concerned.
We have a strong set of evaluations that continue to point us in the direction the consultancy has followed since its inception, namely that to obtain the very best from people, there has to be a strong inner compass that points in the direction of mutual respect and dignity for all of the workforce.

From Conflct to Confidence: Addressing Underachievement

2009-04-05T20:21:00.000+01:00

Our Consultancy has been pleased to work in partnership with a number of schools, further education and training organisations in areas related to the behaviour of learners, students and trainees.
We also deliver our own mentoring and coaching programmes, designed to raise the achievements of all learners by addressing some of the “blockers and stoppers” that are preventing progress. We deliver interventions with the intention of raising aspirations and enabling learners and trainees to break out of the truly unhelpful boundaries that exist because of artificially low expectations, lack of confidence and self-belief. We want the young people who work with us to develop realistic expectations that are fun and challenging.
We know that a key element in raising achievement and making progress is the quality of the relationships formed with trusted adults at critical times. I can’t think of any of my current or past associates and friends who are unable to name and recall the positive input made by significant adults throughout their childhood, adolescence and early adulthood.
The Children and Young People Workforce combines the skills of leaders, managers, teachers, lecturers and trainers to delivers its programmes. This important task would be made much more challenging without the contribution of Para-Professionals: Mentors, Learning Assistants, Student & Pupil Support Managers who bring their very special and refined skills to supporting trainees, often with high risk and vulnerability factors, throughout the learning/training process by providing supportive challenge, trust and advocacy.
We also know that some of our most valued colleagues would like an opportunity to meet with others who are involved in similar work, to address specific challenges and to talk about “what works”. Our programme “From Conflict to Confidence” provides a structured framework in which the above and more can be achieved. All participants will have an opportunity to consider how best to deliver their role within an ethically valid framework that considers best practice, the sources of anger and aggression and the importance of a systematic approach to intervention and support, together with an opportunity to receive ongoing support from Coady Consultants Ltd.

Developing Lunch Time Supervisors (ii)

2009-04-02T11:20:00.000+01:00

We prefer to enter longer-term sustainable relationships with our customers. One of the benefits for us is that we get to see the outcomes of the work we deliver: it's immensely rewarding to witness, in real terms, the amount of movement teams are capable of making.
Working with one of our customers, we have developed a "Lunch Time Team Charter", a simple 3 Fold leaflet that delivers some very powerful messages about the the Lunch Time Team and how it contributes to the well-being of the school community.
An enthusiastic and committed management team have worked with us throughout and the 3 fold will now be

shared with the whole workforce
e-mailed (where appropriate) to parents and carers
used as part of the induction pack for next academic year's Year 7 learners
the subject of tutorial/assemblies

Nothing beats good practice! There are regular meetings between the supervisors, student support managers and a Deputy Head Teacher. It was a privilege to attend one very recently and to witness at first hand the shift in dialogue in this team of 12 people. It has moved from sounding "stuck, helpless and problem-donating", to a place where it is "dynamic, resourceful and problem-solving."

My drive home that evening was made up of around 25 miles of gentle rolling country-side between two major urban areas-the spring sun and crisp skies of late March contributed to the feeling of well-being that had arisen from the massively positive messages and tangible progress demonstrated by a team that had committed to the development process, supported by a school that takes seriously the value-added to be gained from investing in the development and growth of its workforce. Some days are just better than others!

Developing Lunch Time Supervisors

2009-03-27T00:15:00.000Z

We've approached by a number of schools to train their lunchtime supervisors. Hard working people who deliver a massively important thankless task at just above minimum wage. They tell us that they feel undervalued by the workforce and are subject to low-levels of co-operation from children and young people.

Where we've put some training in things have changed for the better. After using our systems the Supervisors have reported that they "feel better about their jobs" and this has had a significant impact on learners. The chief element of change seems to be to increase the worth and regard the supervisors are held in by the rest of the work-force and to get the message across to the kids that Lunch Time Supervisors should enjoy the same level of regard and respect as that given to other team members.

Assertiveness skills, handling your own anger and adopting a common approach seem to have made a difference in every case. Schools should be safe at lunchtimes, this sort of thinking does not come cheap-they need to consider the benefits of the investment. Safer schools, a reduction in bullying and intimidation and a better start to the afternoon session give some indication of the value of the investment in training and development. Trained supervisors have a greater sense of confidence, worth and value and can use their skills in other areas, allowing them to progress in their jobs with the Children's Workforce

Team Development. A Dignified Approach

2009-03-26T21:11:00.000Z

“External consultants are free loaders on the make who have loyalty to no-one other than themselves. “ Now there’s a long sentence to communicate with just a glimpse or a reluctant handshake: I’m pretty certain I’ve heard it or something like it though.

Fact, teams fall out.
Fact, sometimes it gets better by itself.
Fact, sometimes managers intervene and the situation may improve-there are others when their intervention may exacerbate an already difficult situation.

Having an insight into the nature of the conflict will help, there can be movement from Hot (overt) conflict to Cold (covert) conflict. In our experience, Hot Conflicts are easier to recognise, approach and are open to intervention. The overt nature of the Hot Conflict either isolates key players or causes them to join up with groups who share a similar view of what has happened and therefore what needs (in their view) to be done. Cold conflict presents us with a range of far more subtle and toxic organisational pathogens.

We have recently worked with a team to bring to an end a Cold Conflict that had begun with a typical (and as I write, sadly topical) re-organisation. Several experienced team members had left, their posts having been made redundant. A re-organisation and re-structuring meant that it was possible to replace them numerically with less experienced people in re-defined roles. Clusters and sub groups rapidly evolved accompanied by increasingly declining levels of cooperation and increased levels of mistrust generally and mistrust of managers specifically, From the outset, it seemed reasonable to conclude that the team had become absorbed in a purpose other than work and that, as a general view, management had lost its ethical right to manage. There were other rumblings as cliques grew more defined and felt free to comment on the performance of other team members, querying both their competence and their commitment.

We were commissioned to deliver a Team Building Programme. Our role was to enable the team to reach a point from which it could secure a better future in the context of a highly competitive internal and external environment.

We used the following approaches:

A questionnaire that enabled us to communicate with the team (collectively and individually) about perceptions and beliefs with the aim of recognising “Where we are now”.
A questionnaire that enabled us to talk about the situation in Hot and Cold terms within a framework that supported discussion and openness.
A process of identifying the Team’s internal and external audiences and to take ownership of and responsibility for delivering “healthy and productive” messages.

Team members were required to complete a challenging exercise in developing a dialogue that defined their expectations towards and from each other and their managers-in short they have a right to be managed, management has a duty to manage.

We looked at “soft skills” in the context of emotional intelligence” and their impact on the dignity and regard with which they wanted to be treated as individuals and the reciprocal need to treat others in a similar manner. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”

The process was spread over two sessions, each under “Chatham House Rules”. The first event was challenging participants were understandably defensive. They were nonetheless receptive to the pre-event feedback and provided some insightful, if occasionally reluctant contributions that enabled us to broaden the scope of discussions throughout the day. Our approach required us to ensure that quieter team-members had significant opportunity to register their views and observations. This would require more vociferous participants to accept the premise that they would sometime need to “take a step back” from their usual (preferred?) style of behaviours in meetings.

IT WORKED. The opportunity to reflect of the relationship between the team and its internal and external audiences provided sufficient focus to give a common purpose without too much introspective navel gazing, increasing a sense of helplessness or re-affirming dysfunctional positions.

We left a two week gap between sessions in order to create some space in which team members and managers could reflect on the issues raised. This “gave permission” for team members to talk to each other, consider their positions on long held beliefs and to consider their individual readiness to “shift their positions”.

There’s a risk: those with deeply entrenched views who are likely to witness a reduction in their power and influence have an opportunity in which to secure their power-base. We took a judgement call, my view being that we had in our first session, exposed and secured agreement regarding the need for change. Actions that may undermine this position may therefore be seen as contrary to the good of the team. Day 1 had given me an opportunity to sow the seeds that enabled team-members to consider the “ESSENCE OF HUMAN DIGNITY” as a significant contributory factor to team performance. The “gap” provided a space in which the seeds could germinate and grow.

There was a WOW FACTOR at the beginning of Day 2! It was apparent as we were setting up, that the conversations people were having over their “coffee on arrival” were energised, there was a lot of laughter and a tangible sense of purpose. The optimism experienced at the start of the day was an accurate indicator of what was to follow and remained present throughout.
Our “job” was to reflect to the team, the reality they had described on the pre-event questionnaires and during the first session. Our “challenge” was to enable the team to describe a new reality and acknowledge the changes required and individual and group stages in order to produce sustainable growth. Our role was to guide the team in its discussions, so that the risks and challenges associated with change were articulated and understood in the context of the perceived and actual benefits to the individual, the team and the organisation.

We were required to be bold and to engage participants in a process that required them to describe in precise terms how they should work together, address challenging issues, achieve consensus, deal with disagreement and accept that this takes within a context in which they have a right to be heard and management has a duty to manage,
Here are some of the benefits/outcomes participants shared with us:

Talk needs to be followed by an Action Plan – who/when/by given date/deadline

Be prepared to revisit the Action Plan to achieve consensus

Increasing levels of communication needed

Decisions not currently made by consensus

We have lost the ability as a team to achieve the targets set as there are not enough regular divisional meetings to make the team effective

Individuals need to be accountable

The sessions were very helpful

We need to remind others of the protocols of making a complaint; this teaches them professionalism for life

We need to take ownership of issues, not undermine when someone else takes ownership

We need to make time to talk to each other away from the work-place

This has raised our awareness of roles/responsibilities/pressures etc at every level – BUT this needs to be incorporated into the Induction process for new staff so that unnecessary/unrealistic expectations are not fostered.

“Open door” policy needed – to get to know each other

Mentor system in place, but not everyone aware of it

There is a physical divide to the team as they operate on 2 floors – previously a concourse system

On reflection – do not put all new staff in one office, they need to work alongside experienced staff

Admin sits apart from the rest of the team and as such feels apart from any team spirit which may be engendered.

We are now aware of the problems and are in a position to do something to improve it.

Perhaps the most satisfying recognition of what had been achieved came a few months later. The team had been required to produce a piece of challenging work for accreditation which if gained would mean increased job security and some growth.
The team was successful-it is the manager’s view that the outcome would not have been achieved without the increased sense of collaborative working, focus and purpose secured over the development programme and delivered in the context of the relationship between desired outcomes and human dignity.